Because of the close similarity of some Italian and Mediterranean tectonic situations to the
East Asia tectonics – arcs, trenches, Wadati-Benioff zones, volcanic and seismic activities, and a
typical horizontal bending of the alleged lithospheric slab –, many clues are examined in search of
new interpretations of the Mediterranean geological and observational evidence, with the aim of
finding solutions that are exportable to the problems of the circumpacific arc-trench zones. The facts
coming from surface geology, magmatism, geochemistry, different method tomographies, etc., are at
variance with the alleged Africa-Eurasia convergence. The clues for rifting prevail over those for
compression, and many tectonic situations previously interpreted as due to plate collisions, are
associated or mixed to rifting evidence. The proposal is put forward that uprising of mantle material
wedges between two separating lithospheric plates could be a new working hypothesis. On an
expanding Earth the region interposed between Eurasia and Africa has always had a smaller
latitudinal extension with respect to the large Paleo Tethys and Neo Tethys appearing on constantradius
paleogeographical reconstructions. It is then possible, in the expanding Earth view, also to
identify as phases of opening the Paleo Tethys and Neo Tethys currently alleged ‘closure’, which has
added to the Proterozoic nuclei the Variscan and Alpine terranes respectively. These phases and their
orogens have to be considered as extensional phases, and the added terranes of African provenance
(e.g. the Adriatic fragment) should be regarded as fragments left behind as continental Africa moved
away. In this sense, considering the ongoing process of opening as having Proterozoic origin, it is
possible to speak of the Mediterranean as a slowly nascent ocean, but also – paradoxically – as a
very old ocean.